Saxophone mouthpiece



Jan. 10, 1950 N 23494231 SAXOPHONE MOUTHPIECE Filed March 14, 1945 gwue/rvbom Patented Jan. 1Q, 1950 UNITED STATES, mew o-1=i=1 e=* Application March 14, 1945, Serial No. 582,702

2 Claims. (Cl. 84383) The present invention relates to improvements in mouth-pieces for saxophones and the like.

The saxophone is called a hybrid musical instrument, because it applies the clarinet mouthpiece with a single reed to a conical brass tube. The quality of tone of the saxophone differs materially from and is inferior to that of the c1arinets and has aifinities with that of the harmonium. According to Berlioz the timbre of the saxophone has a brazen tinge.

The combination of a reed mouth-piece with a conical pipe as we find it in the saxophone influences not only the timbre, but principally the harmonies obtained by over-blowing and used to supplement the fundamental scale given out as the lateral holes are uncovered one by one.

In view of these defects the saxophone has not enjoyed much favour hitherto with high class composers.

It is an object of my invention to remedy at least some of these defects by the provision of a mouth-piece structure forming a tone of better quality.

For a further understanding of the invention, the same is described in detail and illustrated in the accompanying drawing in which:

Figure 1 is a top plan view of a saxophone mouthpiece embodying my invention;

Figure 2 is a vertical longitudinal section on line 2--2 of Figure l.

In the drawing 2 designates the tubular mouthpiece having a rearwardly tapering rear or nipple portion 3 with a bore 4 to receive the neck (not shown) of the body of the instrument. Concentric with the bore 4 and communicating therewith is a more forwardly disposed tone chamber 5 of a somewhat smaller diameter than that of bore 4. The difference between the diameters is such that one half of the difference equals the thickness of the material forming the neck of the instrument. Therefore when the neck is telescoped into the nipple bore 4, the inner surface of the neck is flush with the inner wall of the tone chamber 5. Forwardly of the tone chamber 5 and concentric and communicating therewith is the tone chamber 6. This chamber has a bore of a diameter of 1%" at the junction with chamber 5 and is enlarged forwardly in such a manner as to present a mouth I partly closed by the reed 8. The surface to which the latter is attached converges slightly forwardly with the exterior top surface 9 and to a greater extent with the surface ID which merges into a forwardly concave surface ll intersecting with surface 9. The material beneath surface I0 is relatively thin.

While in all the standard saxophone mouthpieces a single large tone chamber is provided, I prefer to have two chambers of a total smaller space, the forward chamber 6 is the smaller one of the two chambers in which the tone is created. The size as well as the rearwardly tapering shape of chamber 6 creates a back pressure which forces the reed to vibrate with a greater amplitude, and to carry the vibration into the neck of the saxophone.

Figure 2 shows the beveled portion of the mouth-piece to be relatively small. Thus the teeth of the player may be close together and the small size of the cavity of the mouth improves the tone and makes it more comfortable for the player.

Thus the latter equipped with my mouth-piece delivers much more volume and resonance of tone while the player exerts himself less than with the standard mouthpiece.

While the foregoing specification sets forth the invention in specific terms, it is to be understood that numerous changes in the shape, size and materials may be resorted to without departing from the spirit and scope of the invention as claimed hereinafter.

Having thus described my invention, what I claim and desire to secure by Letters Patent is:

l. A mouthpiece for saxophones provided with a passage extending therethrough and having an enlarged rear end adapted to receive the neck of a saxophone and a portion of smaller diameter forming a rear tone chamber, the opposite end of said passage forming the forward tone chamber and being smaller than said first mentioned tone chamber at the end thereof, adjacent thereto, the opposite end of said last mentioned tone chamber being of greater diameter and terminating in an entrance opening at the under side of the mouthpiece and adapted to be partially closed by a reed.

2. A saxophone mouthpiece as in claim 1, the body of said mouthpiece being externally tapered toward its forward end and the upper side thereof being reduced in thickness to combine with the upper portion of the last mentioned, forward tone chamber to form a relatively thin wall therebetween, for positioning said upper side of the forward portion of the mouthpiece adjacent to the entrance opening of the tone chamber, said upper portion of the forward tone chamber being substantially straight throughout its length and being disposed substantially parallel to the reduced portion of said upper side of the body.

ALLEN P. DUNN.

(References on following page) REFERENCES CITED The following references are of record in the file of this patent:

UNITED STATES PATENTS Number Number 4 Name Date Henton Mar. 18, 1924 Murano Nov. 26, 1946 FOREIGN PATENTS Country Y Date Great Britain A. D. 1893 

